


don't look too deep

by euphrasiepontmercy



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: Gen, Songfic, basically i watched mamma mia 2 for the first time and this is what came of it, in this house we stan abba
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28495647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/euphrasiepontmercy/pseuds/euphrasiepontmercy
Summary: tori gets a piece of advice from joan and zoey in a rather interesting fashion. lyrics from angeleyes by abba (this takes place in the jumpstarted universe, the day after chapter 5)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	don't look too deep

**Author's Note:**

> please god please let zep get the rights to some abba songs because i mean how iconic would that be (this song has been stuck in my head for ages so here ya go)

“What _was_ that place?”

“...A coffeeshop.”

Victoria grinned when she heard voices and jumped up from her hanging chair. She’d only met Joan a few times, so Zoey was eager to get them better acquainted, and found an opportunity when SPRQpoint’s new acting CEO had come back to visit the San Francisco location for a day. The two older women had just picked up lunch from a nearby coffeeshop which was often frequented by the employees but had apparently been completely new to the boss, and they were now making their way through the fourth floor, Zoey struggling to balance a drink carrier as Joan carried the food.

“So...how does it feel to be back on the old stomping grounds?”

“I have to say,” Joan smiled, “I’ve missed your Zoeyisms. Where’s our pianist?”

_Apparently I can’t be seen from here._

“She’s somewhere around here, I’m sure. There is...something I wanted you to talk to her about.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, it wasn’t...it wasn’t the only reason I invited you to lunch, not at all, this just…”

Victoria slowly sat back down, curious as to what her cousin was getting at.

“Something came up last night, and I doubt that she’ll listen to my advice about it, so I thought it might be good for her to hear from someone with-how do I say this-more... _direct experience_ with the situation?”

_...oh, God._

A few moments of silence passed before the older woman’s completely deadpan voice picked up on what Zoey was saying.

“She’s fallen for Leif.”

“Yep.”

Joan sighed as they turned a corner and came to the hanging chairs, finally noticing their subject of conversation sitting in one.

“And she’s just heard everything we said.”

“Apparently.”

Victoria stood up and took her usual smoothie and salad before sitting back down, completely unsure of how to respond. Joan took a spot, sitting as if she’d never been in a hanging chair before, and Zoey gingerly sat in the chair next to hers so they were both facing the younger woman.

“...Sorry, Tori.”

She looked up and laughed, somewhat bitterly.

“What am I supposed to say?”

Joan looked between the two other women.

“Did she know?”

Zoey was about to answer, but Victoria cut her off.

“Yes, he told me everything the first night we met. Granted, he was rather drunk and still completely broken over you, but he never attempted to deceive me about it.”

“Well,” Joan said, seeming taken aback, “that’s...unexpected.”

Victoria nodded, taking a long and slow sip of her smoothie as if trying to prove a point.

“Still, I don’t know how much he’s really changed, and-”

“No, Zoey, you don’t know that, and I don’t know how good it is for us to be talking behind his back like this-”

“Look,” Joan said, breaking the tension. “All I can say is that _one night-”_

_No. Way._

_“I was taking a walk along the-”_

_“-river-”_

Victoria grinned as Zoey interrupted, also in song. _Just like the movie...although Joan does seem to be more of a Tanya._

_“-when I saw him together with-”_

_“-a young girl.”_

While finishing Joan’s sentence, Zoey looked pointedly at her cousin, making it clear that she was the “young girl” in question.

_“And the look that he gave her-”_

_“-made her shiver.”_

Joan rolled her eyes as she looked down at her employee before continuing: _“‘Cause he always used to look at me that way,”_ she explained, scoffing at the memory.

 _“Then she thought,”_ Zoey cut in while standing up and circling her cousin’s chair, _“maybe she should walk right up to her and say:”_

 _“Ah-ha-ha,”_ they sang in unison, _“it’s a game he likes to play.”_

Joan stood and followed Zoey, and Victoria couldn’t keep herself from laughing at the sight of her decidedly non-musical cousin and boss belting ABBA with their entire souls.

_“Look into his angel eyes, one look and you’re hypnotized.”_

They each spun Victoria’s hanging chair in turn to get her to face them, singing to her in perfect harmony as if they were imparting a piece of age-old wisdom.

_“He’ll take your heart and you must pay the price.”_

In an attempt to avoid dizziness, Victoria threw herself out of her chair and stumbled backwards into the pool table before managing to steady herself and sit on top of it as Zoey and Joan continued their chorus.

_“Look into his angel eyes!”_

Though the expressions on their faces remained perfectly serious, their choreography became more and more outlandish as they twirled each other across the floor, never breaking eye contact with Victoria.

_“You’ll think you’re in paradise, and one day you’ll find out he wears a disguise.”_

“You are _completely_ wrong about him!”

While fully aware that she wouldn’t be heard, Victoria couldn’t help interjecting, torn between her astonishment at Leif’s either changing so much or being so misunderstood and her amusement at the sight she was currently taking in.

_“Don’t look too deep into those angel eyes.”_

As they finished the chorus, Joan and Zoey sat on either side of the younger woman and the music continued on. Victoria came to a realization as they looked at her that she was somehow supposed to be part of this as well, and the memory of last night’s serenade popped into her subconscious, prompting her own burst of emotion and song.

_“Crazy ‘bout his angel eyes, angel eyes!”_

Zoey and Joan whisked Victoria off of the table as she sang, allowing her to spin across the floor in a daze. She turned to face them, and although she knew the song-no, their entire discography-by heart, it somehow felt to Tori that she was thinking these lyrics for the first time.

_“He took my heart and now I pay the price.”_

She looked up as the lighting on the fourth floor turned into something reminiscent of a disco. Joan and Zoey rushed to either side of her, trying to stop her thoughts in their tracks, and Victoria grinned as the three women began to carry out a sequence of iconic 70s-inspired choreography. _Mo is going to_ **_love_ ** _this._

_“Look into his angel eyes, you’ll think you’re in paradise.”_

Victoria felt compelled to step back as Zoey and Joan turned to face her, desperately imploring her to listen.

_“Then one day you’ll find out he wears a disguise.”_

She sighed. What they refused to see was that any disguise Leif wore had been shattered early on in their relationship; _I guess that’s the convenience of drunken karaoke and long, late-night conversations._

_“Don’t look too deep into those angel eyes! Oh, no, no, no, no.”_

“You know what, maybe I will.”

In a moment that a teenager in a coming-of-age movie about to get her reputation destroyed would be proud of- _God, what have I become_ -Victoria, fully aware of how she sounded, grooved away from the bullpen-turned-dance-floor (because _there’s no earthly possibility of walking normally while ABBA is playing)._ Completely losing herself in the heartsong, she let loose and danced as Joan and Zoey continued the _“ah-ha-ha”_ s in the background.

_“Keep thinkin’ ‘bout his angel eyes!”_

The music faded out and the lights faded back to normal, but Victoria barely noticed as she danced on. She wasn’t pulled back into reality until she turned and realized that the other two women had been watching her for who knows how long, Zoey with a knowing wince and Joan with a completely blank stare. Quickly and desperately, she pulled herself into a standing position that just might convince her boss that she hadn’t been dancing to music which only she heard.

“...Okay, then.”

“Joan, I can explain-”

“It’s fine. It seems that she takes after you,” the older woman laughed as she checked her watch. “I have to go. It was great seeing you again, and…”

Joan walked up to Victoria and placed her hands on her shoulders, trying to find the words she meant to say.

“Be careful. He feels _very_ deeply.”

Victoria nodded solemnly and shook her boss’ hand.

"So do I."

Joan smiled and gave a curt nod before walking away. Zoey came to her cousin’s side as they watched Joan leave, turning to her as soon as the elevator door shut.

“So I’m taking it you heard that.”

“Yep.”

“I have no clue what song that was,” she said, and Victoria nodded again. “All I know is that Mo would have loved it.”

The younger cousin grinned and shook her head.

“We’ve got a story to tell indeed.”

She grabbed her salad, which she’d somehow eaten in reality while the song was taking place, and made her way to the elevator.

“Wait, Tori, we still need to talk about-”

“I know,” Victoria said, turning to her cousin with a light in her eyes that Zoey had only recently become acquainted with. “Later tonight.”

Zoey nodded and went to her office, still with a slightly worried expression, and Victoria entered the elevator to continue her own workday.

_That poor girl is going to have this tune stuck in her head for the rest of the day..._

_...and yet it’s probably me she’s feeling sorry for._

As the elevator doors closed, she absentmindedly scrolled through Instagram while trying to work through how the night’s conversation would go.

_Tobin’s got a new story up...that’s from just a few minutes ago._

She recognized the view on her screen as a table at a nearby deli that was filled with programmers. Tobin zoomed in and out on people’s faces, ending with his best friend, who had been sitting next to him.  
“Leif, my guy, do you have any messages for the people?”

Unaware until now that he was being filmed, Leif choked on a bite of his sandwich and quickly swallowed it as he came up with a retort.

“And just how many followers do you have?”

“The most in this office.”

Victoria laughed at the comeback and watched as Leif reacted.

“That’s fair,” he said, and made a show out of straightening his tie. “Hello, general public, this is Leif Donnelly, and I’m trying to eat a sandwich in peace.”

His act quickly fell as he laughed with his friend- _the crinkles around his eyes, his damned perfect smile, that scar-_ and Tobin turned the camera back toward himself before signing off.

The screen turned to someone else’s story, and Victoria fell back against the elevator wall as if she were in a romcom.

_Angel, indeed._

**Author's Note:**

> ok that was fun-happy new year!! also SEASON TWO OH MY GOD. I'm so excited and so nervous and want more than anything to be part of this show ok hope you enjoyed this


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